Post-tsunami future starts to take shape<\/p>\n
John Aglionby, Guardian News Service\/Banda Aceh<\/p>\n
Among the hundreds of small communities devastated by
\nthe December 26 tsunami was Nusa, Aceh. In a report from the
\nvillage, John Aglionby describes progress on rebuilding lives.<\/p>\n
Mohammed Yassin has trouble falling asleep at night.<\/p>\n
But his insomnia is not caused by haunting dreams of a second
\ntsunami -- the sound of construction work until late at night is
\nwhat keeps him, and other Nusa residents, awake.<\/p>\n
\"Sometimes it goes on until 11pm or midnight,\" he said. \"Bang,
\nbang, bang. All the time. Every day. And then they start again at
\n8am.\" But few people in the village, six miles south-west of the
\nprovincial capital, Banda Aceh, are complaining, because the work
\nis in a good cause.<\/p>\n
\"It's barracks for the refugees,\" Yassin said. \"They will no
\nlonger have to live in tents or with their relatives but will
\nhave somewhere more permanent to live.\"<\/p>\n
The five barracks -- as the temporary accommodation designed
\nand built by the government for the hundreds of thousands of
\nrefugees across Aceh has been dubbed -- dominate the village
\nskyline.<\/p>\n
Divided into 12 four-by-five meter rooms, with a balcony along
\none side, the raised wooden buildings with corrugated iron roofs
\nlook like modern versions of traditional Indonesian longhouses.<\/p>\n
Each room has an electric socket and light fitting, and
\nrudimentary bathroom and kitchen blocks are at the back. Five
\npeople will be allocated to each room. A mosque is also being
\nbuilt.<\/p>\n
Rebuilding needed, not stopgap measures<\/p>\n
Residents of this village of 149 families support the barracks
\nas a stopgap measure to get refugees out of tents and the 70
\novercrowded houses that are still habitable. But there are fears
\nthat people will be stuck in them for much longer than the two
\nyears planned by the government.<\/p>\n
\"What we really want is to rebuild our houses,\" said Nurul
\nHuda, 17, who is living in a tent with her family. She is
\nstruggling to come to terms with the loss of her younger sister
\nand boyfriend and is resigned to living in a longhouse.<\/p>\n
\"We want the money given to us to rebuild, not spent on
\nbarracks.\"<\/p>\n
The dilemma for many of the 350 refugees from Nusa and 360
\nfrom surrounding villages who are now living in the village is
\nwhere to rebuild.<\/p>\n
\"We want to rebuild on safer land,\" said Abdul Kadir, the
\nvillage secretary, whose house is one of 40 still standing but
\ntoo badly damaged to live in. \"But the land our homes were on has
\nbeen in our families for decades. That land is like blood to us.\"<\/p>\n
Food is in short supply, according to the village chief,
\nMafudz Din, although no one is starving. \"There's a serious food
\nshortage in Nusa,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"At the outset there was plenty but now we are not receiving
\nnearly so much. The military sent 93 sacks of rice the other day
\nbut it's not a regular supply and we only have enough supplies
\nfor about a week.\"<\/p>\n
A soup kitchen, financed by the Istanbul municipal authority,
\nprovides two meals a day on a daily budget of about Rp 1.1
\nmillion (about US$100). \"Every three days we go to the Turks in
\nBanda Aceh,\" said Syamsul Fuadi, one of the village religious
\nleaders who is coordinating the kitchen.<\/p>\n
\"We give them our receipts from the last three days and they
\ngive us more money. Sometimes they come shopping with us but
\nusually we do it ourselves.\"<\/p>\n
Education<\/p>\n
The village primary school, which caters for children aged six
\nto 12, has three teachers to replace those, including the
\nheadteacher, who were killed in the tsunami.<\/p>\n
The new teachers are from nearby villages whose schools were
\ndestroyed. But there has been little other support; chairs and
\ntables damaged by refugees who fled to the school immediately
\nafter the disaster have not been repaired or replaced, for
\nexample.<\/p>\n
One classroom has been requisitioned as a store for food and
\nother supplies for the refugees, leaving a shortage of suitable
\naccommodation.<\/p>\n
\"It is lucky we have received help from Unicef,\" said Salawati
\nHusein, a teacher promoted to headteacher. \"They have provided
\nthe children with education kits and the teachers with new
\nteaching and recreation resources.\" The pupils have also received
\nbooks, bags and T-shirts from private donors, including a local
\nTV station and an American charity.<\/p>\n
Of the 115 pupils who attended the school before the disaster,
\nall but two survived. They have been joined by 19 refugees, while
\nfour of the original roll have moved to the Islamic school on the
\nedge of the village run by Hidayatullah, an orthodox Islamic
\norganization from Kalimantan.<\/p>\n
\"We've taken in an extra 15 students,\" said Usman, the teacher
\nof the Islamic school, who has lived in Nusa for 18 months and is
\nnow helping to look after the refugees camped in his grounds as
\nwell as teaching.<\/p>\n
\"We've had tents from Taiwan, the Red Cross, Germany and
\nSwitzerland, which have made all the difference,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Health, sanitation, finding work<\/p>\n
As in the rest of the village, there are few health problems,
\nthanks to periodic visits from Turkish, Australian, Japanese and
\nChinese doctors. \"The only problems are some diarrhea and the
\nmosquitoes,\" according to Usman. \"Some Malaysians came about a
\nmonth ago to spray the mosquitoes, but since then they have been
\n10 times as bad.\"<\/p>\n
The water main has also been reconnected and several
\nstandpipes have been erected, although the village chief, Mafudz,
\nis hoping to have two wells dug as a backup. There is electricity
\nfor only three hours each night to a few of the houses still
\nstanding, thanks to a couple of generators donated by the
\nJapanese government.<\/p>\n
\"Each person who wants power has to pay Rp 5,000 rupiah a day
\nand then we connect them,\" said Yassin.<\/p>\n
The villagers' priority is to find work. The rice fields are
\nstill unusable and, if a UN study released last week is correct,
\nwill probably remain so for months. Most of the 70 percent of
\nvillagers who made their living from farming have small plots in
\nthe hills where they tend crops such as cassava, chili and other
\nvegetables.<\/p>\n
\"It is something, but not enough to make a decent living,\"
\nsaid Mafudz.<\/p>\n
Of the remaining 30 percent, many worked at the local
\nfurniture factory, which was destroyed. \"We all helped do some
\ntidying up but we are still waiting for our December wages,\" said
\none employee, Muliyadi.<\/p>\n
\"Like many of the men, I spent the first few weeks collecting
\nscrap metal from the fields and selling it to dealers, but there
\nis none left. We do not know what to do now.\"<\/p>\n
Some people have been employed to help with building the
\nbarracks and a few have set up small businesses, but many still
\nseem too traumatized.<\/p>\n
\"People want to work so they can earn money, look after their
\nfamilies and not feel dependent,\" said Mafudz. \"But many of us
\nare still too confused to think straight.\"<\/p>\n
COPYRIGHT: GUARDIAN NEWSPAPERS LIMITED 2005<\/p>\n
GetDPA 1.10 -- FEB 23, 2005 05:41:22<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/post-tsunami-future-starts-to-take-shape-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }